How did they imagine they'd get away with it, claiming that Iraq had
vast stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and even nuclear
weapons?

Defectors had made clear the chemical and biological weapons (some of
them provided by the United States) had been destroyed. Inspectors had
searched almost every inch of Iraq and said they'd get to the last few
inches if given a few more days. Iraq was screaming that it had no such
weapons. Numerous nations around the world were agreeing with Iraq.
Colin Powell's own staff warned him that his claims would not be deemed
plausible.

And yet, they got away with it to such an extent that most
well-intentioned people in the United States to this day maintain that
nobody can possibly be sure that Bush, Cheney, et alia, knew their
statements were false when they made them.

"All this was inspired by the principle -- which is quite
true within itself -- that in the big lie there is always a certain
force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always
more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature
than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of
their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the
small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters
but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods." --Adolf
Hitler

The U.S. media has repeatedly been claiming that Russia has invaded
Ukraine. They claim it for a while, and there's obviously been no
invasion, so they pause. Then they claim it again. Or they claim that a
convoy of aid trucks constitutes an invasion. But the aid trucks look
like aid trucks in all the photographs, and yet nobody has taken similar
photographs of any invasion. When Ukrainian tanks rolled into eastern
Ukraine and were surrounded by civilians, we saw photographs and videos.
Now there's just a Colin-Powellesque satellite photo from NATO
supposedly showing Russian artillery in Ukraine.

The major Russian invasion that apparently comes complete with some
sort of muggle-and-photographer-repellant charm is said to consist of
1,000 troops -- or roughly as many troops as the U.S. has now sent back
into Iraq in no sort of invasion to worry about whatsoever.

But where are the 1,000 Russian troops invading Ukraine? Ukraine
claims to have captured 10 of them, but the captured troops don't seem
to have agreed to the story. And what happened to the other 990? How
did someone get close enough to capture 10 but not photograph the other
990?

Meanwhile Russia says it's all lies and publicly urges the United
States to engage with Ukraine diplomatically and urge the Ukrainian
government to stop bombing its own citizens and work out a federalist
system that represents everyone within its borders.

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But NATO is busy announcing a counter-invasion to the invisible Russian invasion.

How do they imagine they'll get away with it? Well, let's see. Not a
single individual responsible for the lies that launched the destruction
of Iraq and the death of some million people and the predictable and
predicted chaos now tormenting Iraq's whole region has been held
accountable in any way.

The lie that Gadaffi was about to slaughter innocents, the lie that
facilitated the attack on Libya and the hell that has now been
established there -- No one has been held accountable for that lie in
any way whatsoever.

The lie that the White House had proof that Assad had used chemical
weapons -- No one has been held accountable. No one has even had to
recant as they switch targets and propose bombing Assad's enemies.

The lie that drone strikes don't kill innocents and don't kill those
who could easily have been arrested instead -- No one has been held
accountable.

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The lie that the United States had proof Russia had shot down an
airplane over Ukraine -- No one has been held accountable, and the
United States is opposing an independent investigation.

The lie that torture makes us safe, a lie that led to the United
States torturing some folks -- No one at the level of air-conditioned
office work has been held responsible at all.

David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online (more...)